Muse. Sommer Marsden
painted me.’
Her friend shook her head. ‘He painted you? So? Isn’t he painting you in class?’
Dani shook her head. ‘No, he’s drawing me in class. And I meant, he painted me. He painted my body with paint using a paintbrush. And he … strayed dangerously close to highly sensitive areas.’ Her phone buzzed.
‘Oh … sexy painting. I get it. Cool. He painted you and?’
Dani’s phone buzzed again. She held up a finger and answered. ‘Hello?’
‘Hey, it’s Chris.’
Her face was suddenly on fire. Her pulse a wicked thump and bang in her veins. She could feel it in the very centre of her forehead, a thrumming rush.
‘Hi.’ God, her voice was breathy. Weak. Maidenly.
‘Hey,’ Chris said. ‘Just making sure you’re still coming tonight. That you didn’t get home and decide I was insane to suggest it and you were equally insane to accept.’
Momentarily speechless, Dani was focused on the thoughts running through her mind. The first being: You should paint her the way she deserves to be painted. Like the art she is … What he’d said about her in her filthy, filthy dream.
The other followed swiftly: He sat and watched you stand there nude last night. Utterly naked. Without a stitch of clothing …
‘Hello? Dani?’
Cheryl was watching her, an avid look on her face. She could smell the drama, Dani was sure.
‘Yes. Sorry. I’m here. And yes, I’ll be there. I don’t think you’re insane. The verdict is still out on me, though.’ She forced a laugh and cringed to hear the vaguely lunatic tone of her laughter.
‘Good. I’ll see you then. You did great last night. Spectacular. You looked amazing, Dani,’ he said. A few beats of silence while she tried to prompt herself to thank him but failed. Then he cleared his throat. ‘OK, then. I’ll see you tonight. New class. They’re going to love you too.’
She managed a strangled ‘OK’ and then ‘bye’ and then he was gone.
‘So who was that?’
‘Chris. The friend of mine who thought up this whole crazy thing. He teaches the art class.’
Cheryl sat back looking very smug. ‘Friend?’
Dani nodded, stirring her soup but not actually eating it. ‘Yep. Since we were teenagers. Grew up in the same neighbourhood.’
‘Just friends?’
‘Yes.’ Her tongue sort of stuck to the roof of her mouth so she took a sip of water. Then another.
‘So why are you blushing like a virginal bride?’
‘I’m not.’
‘Oh, darling. You are.’
‘He’s just a friend. I swear.’
Cheryl made a noncommittal noise. ‘Not sure I buy that. I think someone might be hot for teacher.’
Dani decided that telling her friend that Chris had also had a starring role in her dream would be a very bad idea. She stirred her soup and sipped her water until it was time to go back upstairs to her office. She just had to get through the day and then not freak out when she saw Chris. No big deal, really. The dream hadn’t meant anything. Her mother had always called dreams ‘psychic junk’. Whatever was floating around in your subconscious that day came out to play when you slept. A great big amusement park of debris and detritus that made up one giant vat of nonsense soup.
She’d always believed that. She still did. Mostly.
Dani was running late. Her boot heels tapped out a hurried rhythm on the tile as she raced toward the classroom. She couldn’t find her keys when it came time to leave the house and had finally, after much swearing and panic, found them under her purse instead of in the bowl by the door where she normally kept them.
Chris was speaking to his Tuesday-night class when she rushed in. He looked up, surprised but not annoyed, and then a strange look passed across his face like a cloud blocking out the sun for a moment.
‘Sorry,’ she said, softly. ‘I had a snafu. If you could just give me my—’
He went to the brass coat rack by his desk and pulled the kimono down. ‘Class, this is Dani Young, our model for tonight. When you sketch her, I expect you to catch the roses in her cheeks from running.’ He handed her the robe and stroked a fingertip along the jut of her cheekbone. Then he winked at her and said softly, ‘You’re fine. Go change.’
She nodded, clutching the robe, and hurried off to the restroom to change into, well, nothing.
This was a hell of a way to not be nervous, she thought. Be late. Be more upset that you’re tardy than that you have to reveal all your secret bits to another group of strangers. But the fact that she wasn’t very nervous about that at all, was in fact more nervous about seeing Chris after that stupid dream, made the night seem even more surreal than the previous class.
She walked into tonight’s class. Brand-new faces regarded her. Some interested, some slightly embarrassed, some bored. Tonight she was able to meet eyes and size people up. She didn’t think the Zen thing would be necessary this time but took a deep breath just in case.
‘I’ll show you your pose, Dani,’ Chris said, rising from his seat. ‘I try to mix things up,’ he said as he got closer.
She caught a whiff of his aftershave. Woodsy and subtle. It filled her senses for a split second and the fine hairs on her arm rose up. Chris was manipulating her arms as she stood there utterly nude and to her surprise he spotted that detail. ‘Cold?’ he whispered so the class couldn’t hear.
His hot breath moved across her skin as he spoke and her nipples spiked, hard and sensitive before she could even begin to will them not to. As if that were possible.
Lying was the best option. ‘A little,’ she whispered.
He nodded, moved her hands so that her right hand clasped her left wrist, almost obscuring her sex from the viewers. He took his fingertips and tilted her head just so. ‘I’ll turn the heat up a little bit. I know this pose is a tiny bit awkward, I try to make them simple, not just for them, but for you, as well. Just do your best, OK?’
She almost nodded and caught herself. ‘OK,’ she said softly.
All she wanted was for him to move away from her and fast. Her body, the traitor that it was, seemed to be recalling every vivid detail from her dirty dream. His close proximity was spurring her body to lubricate and she could feel an anticipatory tremble starting. Hopefully if he noticed that he’d assume it was nerves.
Finally, thank God, he walked away. Her gaze followed him. He wore faded jeans and a cream-coloured sweater. His dark hair was just a bit tousled, a light five o’clock shadow was blooming on his jaw. Though he’d left, the scent of him lingered around her. Her best option was to simply not breathe.
That worked for about thirty seconds until her head started to feel buzzy. To distract herself, Dani turned her attention to the class. There was the hippy-dippy lady in the back. She was decked out in tie-dyed yoga pants, long silver-blonde dreadlocks, a flowy purple tunic and enough jewellery to sink a rowboat. She smiled at Dani when she caught her eye. Dani smiled back but only for a moment.
Next to the tie-dyed lady sat a very thin young man who was dressed all in black. He had an undercut and eyeliner. His lips were so red she thought for a moment he was wearing lipstick, but then she realised those were just his lips. Lucky boy, she thought. I’d save a million dollars on lipstick if